Leaders vs Managers Essay

Section 1: Introduction

To know the essence of the topic given, we must first understand the meaning of the basic terms which will be leading the course of direction in this essay.

A leader is a person who holds a dominant or superior position within its field, and is able to exercise a high degree of control or influence over others. (Definition of Leader, 2012)

Leadership refers to the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in accomplishment of a common task. (Chemers, M., 1997) It is the course of organizing a group of people to attain a common objective.

A manager is a person who is in charge of a certain group of tasks, or a certain subset of a company. A manager often has a staff of people who report to him or her. (Definition of Manager, 2012)

Management refers to process of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. It includes the processes of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling an organization or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. (Management, 2012)

Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard provided us with a clear and concise explanation of the difference between the two terms. These two are different concepts with overlap. Leadership is a broader concept on its own and is not a concept exclusive to or within management. According to them, management is considered to be a special kind of leadership in which the achievement of organizational goals is vital. Leadership is influencing the behavior of someone, whereas Management is setting up an intention and achieving that purpose of that intention.
Leadership requires a follower and a leader has to outline out how to influence the follower.
Manager has to define a goal and in theory he may do the job himself and manage the goal. But in practice, the people who are called managers have large number of people under them and they have to...